Having grown up in the working class, Nicholas uses songwriting as both catharsis and self-discovery. He believes "that there is an ideal, honest way to live and through the writing process, I'll be able to find it".

With the release of his new EP "The Greatest Enemy”, Nicholas looks set to get back on the road and reconnect with audiences. To him, rediscovering that connection between audience and performer is "the best feeling on earth and I want to keep chasing it".

Filtering by Category: Terrible Luck

In 2017, I travelled the furthest ever for my music, to a town called Enkhuizen in the Netherlands. It was the last show of my European tour that year, which included a performance televised to 4 million households in Germany, and I stood at the water’s edge, thinking how fortunate I am.

Just like any tour, this trip was definitely a learning experience with its good and bad points. But in that moment, all the stress just melted away, leaving only the satisfaction that I did pretty well, even by my personal standards. I felt grateful that we made it to every venue on time (thanks Deutsche Bahn!), and no one was injured or fell ill.

It was a beautiful place to finish the Terrible Luck tour. I mean, check out the view! I wish I could live somewhere like this in the future.

Recorded by the lovely people at Lakeside Stories, then mixed and mastered by yours truly, I'm happy to finally share with you select tracks from that significant moment. They are released as an exclusive for my subscribers on Bandcamp, so join us over there to get these tracks and more!

I hope these songs will help you feel hope. After all, if this old boy can have his music take him halfway across the world, you can believe that your dreams can come true too =) Peace.

Performing music is a relatively safe process. You get to a venue, do your soundcheck, have a small dinner, pour your heart out for an hour or more and receive love from your audience in return. Then there are the other nights, when trouble will find me.

Before memory fades, here are a few interesting stories from the years of performing.

Drunk guy messing with Shaun’s pedals - Wan Chai, 2013

Independent musicians in Hong Kong would tell you that you have to play at The Wanch if you’re coming through. I remember that they called it a “baptism of fire”. With its raw and honest vibe, it’s definitely the place to cut your performing teeth.

It’s a intimate space so with my four piece band at the time, so guitarist and friend Shaun was set up close to the entrance. A patron standing at the door, obviously inebriated, decided to become part of our set. He spoke loudly into Shaun’s ear while he was performing and even stepped on his effects pedals, believing that some part of the songs needed more distortion! This went on throughout the entire set. Poor Shaun!

Despite that, I would recommend other musicians to perform there if you can. There are very few places like it left in our modern world.

Getting molested - Aachen, 2014

I had just finished my set in Aachen and stepped out for a breather. Most of the audience had stepped outside too. Suddenly, this guy bear-hugged me from behind and whispered in my ears “your fingers, they fly like magic”. I looked at Rayner desperately for help but he refused to with a cheeky grin. Eventually the guy’s friend got him to let go and apologised on his behalf, explaining he was quite drunk.

Locked Out in the Middle of Nowhere - Melbourne, 2011

We were at Loch Ard Gorge to take a few shots for the music video for “I Want You Again”. Returning to the car, my friend Ian accidentally threw the car keys along with his jacket into the car boot and slammed it shut. Realising our situation, we tried calling the car rental company for help but our phones could not get any reception. We quickly ran to the driver of the last tour bus around, whose phone had enough reception. Thanks a bunch, Vodafone!

After an hour of enduring strong winds from the Antarctic and dropping temperatures, the mechanic from the nearest town found us and opened the car boot for us. We definitely learnt to be more careful, as well as how to jack open a car!

A Lack of Privacy - Munich, 2017

The Lovelace Hotel is a cool “popup hotel” which repurposes an abandoned building in the middle of Munich. I usually wouldn’t stay in such lavish accommodation while on tour but this time, it made sense since I would be performing there the next evening.

As is the norm with cool hotels, you’re bound to be pleasantly surprised when you enter your hotel room. For Debra and I, it was the lack of a door for the toilet! This led to arrangements to maintain some level of privacy, but then there was the morning after I had pork knuckles and too much beer..

An Unforgettable Opening Act - Melbourne, 2010

The younger me had no idea how music scenes outside of Singapore worked yet somehow, I managed to land a slot at the Empress Hotel in Melbourne within a couple of weeks of sleeping on a couch.

I was to share the night with three other acts, one of them being a former Australian Idol reject. I told myself, “it’s just television, no one could be that awkward”. But I was proven very wrong that evening!

When he got up on stage, he plugged in his earphones and proceeded to play along to an Oasis song blasting in his ears. You had to be there to hear the level of terrible the sound engineer was subjected to.

He didn’t bring anyone to watch and yet demanded his share of the pool. This is raised by everyone’s friends paying a small entrance fee each and is divided equally amongst the acts at the end. He also made me feel uncomfortable, with prolonged stares throughout the night. It’s taken several years for me to listen to “Champagne Supernova” again.

Looking Legit Emo Backfires - Singapore, 2009

My band Vertical Rush was about to perform on national television, when suddenly a bunch of young men shouted from the crowd, “Take off your top!”, while pointing at a female friend of theirs. I though it was the usual heckling, so I reacted by saying “$10!” to put it to a stop.

After the performance, said girl came up to me outside the studio and asked me for a photo. I felt bad vibes coming from her so I quickly grabbed bandmate Marcus and had him stand between us. Moments before the photo was taken, she leaned behind Marcus and began to say things like, “ oh my god you’re so hot, you look like xxx from Saosin..”. I didn’t how else to react except to run to the dressing room and hide.

Twitter Stalkers - Singapore, 2014

One day, I decided to search myself on Twitter. I saw an interesting conversation. It went like this:

B:@A oh don’t you know? He stays in Teck Whye, *proceeds to disclose almost my entire home address on the internet*

I can’t remember what they said next but I decided to deal with it in a constructive manner. I tweeted them “Hey @A and @B, let’s meet in real life =) My next show is on..” No more tweets from them ever since!

Do you have any funny stories of your own? Share them with me in the comments section, maybe we could write a book of our collected experiences =)

Lately I’ve been preoccupied with the future, not in that “living in the future” way though! Reason being, I’ve been quietly setting things up to prepare for a new chapter in my life (will announce it properly when the time’s right). Honestly, it’s scary and uncomfortable. The words “struggle” and “sustainability” have been surfacing in my consciousness.

Sustainability

because I want to keep creating and putting out music, at a pace that I’m happy with.

The old method of working a job to raise the money needed to create, release and promote an album, doesn’t allow one to produce songs at a desirable rate. Social media is important, but I still believe that a songwriter’s first and foremost task is to write good songs. Without these, there wouldn’t be any point to this, would there?

Struggle

because I’ve begun to accept the responsibilities placed on myself and to the ones I love, that I know I have to make things work somehow.

Yet at the same time, I find it difficult to ask for help, even though there are people out there who want to give in a capacity larger than streaming my songs. I know that it stems from a low self-esteem, an ingrained belief that I don’t deserve the help and generosity of others, that wants me to sabotage my own success.

In my mind, the recurring dialogue sounds like “What fans? I don’t have anything to offer them, I’m not good enough, why would they say yes?”. I refuse to believe that, because the truth is, what’s the worst that could happen? They could say no, and that is definitely not the end of the world.

I’m no Amanda Palmer but I want to believe in the power of asking. I want to believe that my songs have touched your lives and that you would want to support the creation of more music.

The Solution: Bandcamp Subscriptions

That’s why I’ve decided to start using Bandcamp Subscriptions: to give you the option to support me in a more sustainable way.

For starters, you’ll get the stuff you’ve always wanted: B-sides and live recordings that I didn’t think were good enough for an official release, but I think that you might appreciate them, flaws and all.

You’ll also get the entire Vertical Rush discography, official and otherwise, where you’ll hear a younger me sing and perform on some of the songs.

I also plan to share clips of the songs-in-progress at the end of each month, to assure you that I’m writing as hard as I can! We could even arrange a subscriber-only living room concert =)

Let’s Make Music Together

I don’t dislike the current trends of music consumption, not at all. In fact, the Internet has taken my music further than I imagined. I’ll still put out stuff on Spotify and the other usual channels, and I’m already grateful for you listening to the music there.

But like I mentioned earlier, it’s an option for those of you who want to give more and get more back in return. If you need more information about how Bandcamp Subscriptions work, check out the following links:

A big “Thank You” in advance to everyone who chooses to get on board with this! I’ve never done something like this before and I’m looking forward to being part of a community that passionately supports the creation of independent music.